Rajendra Prasad

Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884-28 February 1963) was President of India from 26 January 1950 to 14 May 1962, preceding Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. He was a member of the Indian National Congress.

Biography
Rajendra Prasad was born into a wealthy family in Jiradei, Bihar, India in 1884, and he was educated in Calcutta and became a successful lawyer. Of the inner circle of Mahatma Gandhi's followers, which included Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel, he was the one whose ideals most closely resembled that of the Mahatma. He presided over the Indian National Congress in 1934, 1939, and 1947, and was Minister of Food and Agriculture in the interim government of 1946-7. A conciliatory figure whose authority derived from the application of Gandhian principles, he presided over the Constituent Assembly from 1946 to 1949. As the first President of India, he was uncomfortable with Nehru's confrontational policies against Pakistan, as well as his promotion of industry. He left office in 1962, and he died a year later.